NFL News

[jaadam4]

This is why that #1 seed is so important. Not only do you get a week to rest and heal, but you get to play the survivor of the Eagles and 49ers game if you make it to the NFC championship.

Definitely

[El Axe]

There are Derrick Henry Trade Rumors. Supposedly, they're looking to trade him to a contender and preferably the NFC, of course.

Here's a Bleacher report article with proposals. Lions aren't there, but we'd have to be really interested and it makes sense for both teams. They're proposing a 2nd & 5th, which sounds about right. I know it's only a 1-year rental, but he really might be the difference in winning the whole thing -- especially if Monty is going to be playing hurt for the rest of the season.

[jaadam4]

There are Derrick Henry Trade Rumors. Supposedly, they're looking to trade him to a contender and preferably the NFC, of course.

Here's a Bleacher report article with proposals. Lions aren't there, but we'd have to be really interested and it makes sense for both teams. They're proposing a 2nd & 5th, which sounds about right. I know it's only a 1-year rental, but he really might be the difference in winning the whole thing -- especially if Monty is going to be playing hurt for the rest of the season.

I wouldn’t give up anything more than a 3rd for Henry. A second is a premium pick

[froot loops]

I would try not to trade a second and a fifth for Henry. But that wouldn't be a deal breaker for me. Even if Gibbs and Montgomery are healthy, I think they are one running back short. He is still a battering ram that Philly or San Fran have to deal with.

The salary cap ramifications are a little weird for both teams. His remaining salary would eat up the rest of the available space, so the Lions would have to restructure some contracts to take give them some breathing room.

That would probably be it for any acquisition, that would mean you are committed to Will Harris and Jerry Jacobs getting a lot of snaps.

[El Axe]

I would try not to trade a second and a fifth for Henry. But that wouldn't be a deal breaker for me. Even if Gibbs and Montgomery are healthy, I think they are one running back short. He is still a battering ram that Philly or San Fran have to deal with.

The salary cap ramifications are a little weird for both teams. His remaining salary would eat up the rest of the available space, so the Lions would have to restructure some contracts to take give them some breathing room.

That would probably be it for any acquisition, that would mean you are committed to Will Harris and Jerry Jacobs getting a lot of snaps.

Good post, I honestly don't know how a mid-season trade like this would effect the salary cap. I know we've got some wiggle room in general, but no idea what the consequences would be to adding him.

Our secondary is getting healthier. I expect Branch to be back soon and I like Jacobs as CB2. Iffy is available to play almost anywhere right now.

Our RB room, though, is dangerously thin. We basically played a guy off the street last game and Reynolds is banged up now, too. We're not even half-way through the season. So much of what we do revolves around the RBs.

It's hard not to get excited about the idea of even an older Henry running behind our OL.

[chemiclord]

A second and a fifth would be awfully rich for a one year rental, and I'm not sure I'd want Henry terribly long term either.

[Mainevent]

I like the idea of Henry but I’m not giving up a day 2 pick for him. Much rather keep those resources or spend them on a CB or try to get that upgrade at pass rusher.

[froot loops]

The thing about Henry is he has a 20 million dollar dead cap hit. The Titans might be shopping him around but I thought that accelerated into the current league year if he was traded. If you play around on Spotrac it claims the Titans save money by trading him. But I confess I've never really got a grasp on the voidable years and how they work.imthis type of situation. At any rate, I don't think they would trade him if they were only getting a day 3 pick.

[Iron Lion]

Trade for Jamaal Williams lol

[ghandi]

Trade for Jamaal Williams lol

Hes on IR

[jaadam4]

Chubba Hubbard from Carolina or Zeke Elliott would be a cheap option. Zeke isn’t the same player that he used to be he’s still
playing well. He would cost you a pick swap and in a 3 back
rotation he’d fit right in

[whatever_gong82]

NFL owners say grass vs. turf debate isn’t as clear as NFLPA claims



By Kalyn Kahler
Oct 18, 2023


In September, after New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles in the first drive of the season, NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell released a statement about NFL playing surfaces, saying: “Moving all stadium fields to high-quality natural grass surfaces is the easiest decision the NFL can make.”


Howell took office in June and wrote that during his short time in the role, the issue of artificial turf “has been near the top of the players’ list during my team visits and one I have raised with the NFL.”

There’s no end in sight for the turf versus grass debate. Just last week, Buffalo Bills players ripped the artificial turf in London.



There have been several recent studies that show that turf causes more lower-body injuries than natural grass, and the NFLPA finds that research significant. The NFL and NFLPA share the same injury information and a CBA-mandated committee on field surface safety and performance, but the NFL has not taken the hard-line stance on the data that the NFLPA has, and has pointed out that some turf fields have a lower injury rate than some grass fields.

So unsurprisingly, for NFL owners attending the fall league meetings in New York City, the issue isn’t as black and white as the NFLPA makes it out to be.



Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said he’s never given a thought to having natural grass at AT&T Stadium, which is an indoor venue that wasn’t built to accommodate the grass setup that the Arizona Cardinals and the Las Vegas Raiders indoor stadiums employ, where they roll the grass in for games and out to grow in the sunshine afterward.

“We don’t think we can have a quality natural grass in our stadium,” Jones said. “If you’ve got indoor stadiums, it’s just very difficult if you don’t plan on the front end, like an Arizona did, to roll the grass in. And then sometimes they get criticized for the condition of the field because it doesn’t grow as well as if they were growing it full time out there. There’s a lot of moving parts.”



Jones is also a member of the league’s competition committee, which means he’s taken a close look at the data on injuries on turf versus grass and doesn’t think it’s significant.

“I just think the data, you always want it to be perfect,” Jones said. “It’s a little more (injuries on turf) by a minuscule, there may be a couple more injuries that we do study our turf and what we’re doing there, and I think they get better every year. I know the league helps fund the research on this and how we can make these fields better.”




Jones said Cowboys players ask to practice on grass during the week, and Dallas has natural grass practice fields but said he’s never had a player ask him to switch the stadium turf to grass.

“We’ve never lost a player who says ‘Oh, well, I’m gonna go to another team where I’m playing on grass,’” Jones said. “You got to play half the games on the road. So I’m sure that that plays into some of it too.”


Panthers owner David Tepper has heard directly from players who have asked him to switch the Bank of America stadium back to grass. In 2021, Tepper switched the stadium from grass to turf because he landed a Major League Soccer expansion team that would play there, and he wanted to host more concerts there. Former Panthers wide receiver D.J. Moore said last season that team leaders asked Tepper to bring back grass.



On his way out the door of the Intercontinental hotel in Manhattan on Wednesday, Tepper told The Athletic that whenever the NFL and the NFLPA make policy regarding playing surfaces, he’ll adjust, and he’s anxious to see safe and consistent surfaces across the league.
The Minnesota Vikings will be switching to monofilament turf from the current slit film this coming offseason, a decision that Vikings owner/EVP Jonathan Wilf said came in part from the Vikings’ internal review process and also from the NFL’s goal for playing surface consistency. Last November, the NFLPA called for an immediate ban on all slit film turf.

“I know that there’s been a lot of discussions about just having a uniform surface so there’s more consistency from field to field,” Wilf said. “So not one turf that feels harder than another turf, or one slicker than another turf.”





NFL executive VP of communications, public affairs and policy Jeff Miller said the league doesn’t have a specific regulation on the type of playing surfaces — whether that’s slit film turf, monofilm turf, hybrid or natural grass, but that conversations with the NFLPA and joint research between the league and the player’s union are constantly evolving.

“The goal needs to be to limit the number of different sorts of surfaces that our clubs play on,” Miller said. “So when [a player] steps on a field in one city that is going to feel very similar to the surface that he steps on in different cities so it doesn’t feel hard or soft, or slick, or sticky.”




Miller said the league regularly shares injury data with clubs and makes recommendations. He said that sometimes, an inconsistent grass surface could have more injury data than a turf surface. Miller used the Tennessee Titans as an example because the team switched from natural grass to turf for this season at Nissan Stadium. Miller said the injury data on Tennessee’s natural grass playing surface supported the move to turf, a more controllable surface that modeled reduced injury data. The Titans team website reported that based on data from the 2018-21 seasons, Nissan Stadium had a higher number of lower extremity injuries than each of the monofilament synthetic turfs in the league.

“From an injury rate perspective, that was a logical decision for that club,” Miller said. “You need to look at each individual circumstance.”




Raiders owner Mark Davis recently built a new stadium when his team moved to Las Vegas, and grass was at the top of his list of priorities.

“That was something that I specifically had to have, was grass for safety purposes,” Davis said. “The Raiders were not going to play on astroturf. It just didn’t make sense. And so the Arizona Cardinals and the Bidwills had the guts to try it in their stadium, with the tray, and we learned from them and took it to the next level. There’s just no way that we were going to go play on turf.”




Davis said he wished all NFL teams would move to grass, but he also acknowledged the difficulties and cost of growing it in certain Northern climates with outdoor stadiums.

“But it’s possible because I’ve seen them take indoor arenas or indoor stadiums and roll grass in for soccer, so they can bring it in on a game-by-game basis,” Davis said. “That’s an expense, but that would be something I believe that would have to be collectively bargained. And I don’t know where that would go. But for me, grass was No. 1.”

[whatever_gong82]

Which NFL stadiums have artificial turf and which have grass? Everything you need to know



By The Athletic Staff
Oct 18, 2023


One of the biggest topics of the NFL season came into renewed focus this week at the league’s fall meetings: players’ preference for natural grass playing fields over artificial turf.

In September, after New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles in the first drive of the season, NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell released a statement about NFL playing surfaces, saying: “Moving all stadium fields to high-quality natural grass surfaces is the easiest decision the NFL can make.”

Howell took office in June and wrote that during his short time in the role, the issue of artificial turf “has been near the top of the players’ list during my team visits and one I have raised with the NFL.”



There have been several recent studies that show that turf causes more lower-body injuries than natural grass, and the NFLPA finds that research significant. The NFL and NFLPA share the same injury information and a CBA-mandated committee on field surface safety and performance, but the NFL has not taken the hard-line stance on the data that the NFLPA has, and has pointed out that some turf fields have a lower injury rate than some grass fields.

There are also multiple types of turf and grass in use, perhaps further complicating matters. The league doesn’t have a specific regulation on the type of surfaces teams lay down. As of now, 15 stadiums have artificial turf and 15 have grass or hybrid grass, which is natural turf reinforced with synthetic fibers.


Amid the calls for change, here’s a breakdown of the surface each NFL stadium uses:

NFL Field Surfaces 2023-A.jpg


NFL Field Surfaces 2023-B.jpg
NFL Field Surfaces 2023-C.jpg NFL Field Surfaces 2023-D.jpg

[jaadam4]

Can we please bring in Leonard Fournette now?

[whatever_gong82]

Mueller: How to work the NFL trade deadline from a GM’s perspective



By Randy Mueller
Oct 18, 2023


Cover 7 | Wednesday A daily NFL destination that provides in-depth analysis of football’s biggest stories. Each Wednesday, Randy Mueller presents his insights from the point of view of the general manager’s seat.



As an NFL general manager, you always have one thought in mind: How can I make my team better?


As we approach the Oct. 31 NFL trade deadline, teams are still declaring who they are and what they need to further their cause for a playoff run. Decision-makers get eight weeks of regular-season football to figure this out. That’s more than enough time to make something happen, so as a fan, you have a right to have expectations.

The following are three principles to follow to improve your team on the fly:


Be active

The late Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen and his circle of trusted people used to tell me, when I was running their team, “Get us involved in every deal that’s available, we can always say no later.” It was great advice, and I took those words to heart, burning up the phone lines and gathering intel as to who might be available. It pushed me, and I figured that following that advice might just make our team better in some way, even if we didn’t make a deal. It’s something any owner of any professional franchise can do to help their GM, but very few seem willing to impart that guidance to people running their franchises. Knowledge is power, and every owner has had to be successful in some business or possess a philosophy that can help the cause. Contrary to the belief in some corners that an involved owner is bad, I loved having them advise me and found them to be good sounding boards.


Not all teams subscribe to this thinking, but as I learned the business, Paul’s advice was always in the back of my mind. Why not be aggressive in gathering information? Most current NFL GMs seem more open to trades than ever before. One reason for this willingness is the pressure to win now. Patience in retooling your team is a hard sell when results are expected immediately, and inactivity doesn’t make anyone — whether the bosses or the fans — feel good about progress. I’m with that mindset as well. There has to be something available that makes us better.

For many years, clubs pushed to move the trade deadline date back on the NFL calendar to where it is now but to no avail. The pushback from the league office was always that it didn’t want struggling teams to be able to dump players, as Major League Baseball allows. But that changed in 2012 when the league and the NFLPA moved the deadline from post-Week 6 to post-Week 8. This change has provided team builders with realistic opportunities to improve and more time to formulate plans — IF they can honestly assess their own team first.


Honestly assess your own team


Any trade starts with being true when assessing your roster and how players fit within the schemes on either side of the ball. These assessments, which must be without agenda, are sometimes not clear-cut for several reasons. Coaches and evaluators alike can get anchored on feelings, personalities or an original draft grade that may have been determined several years back. You have to combine details from within a position group room 30,000-foot view when putting together pieces of the roster. Players can develop and change, so you always need a fresh outlook on the roster.




To that end, I would sometimes ask for a trusted set of independent eyes (maybe even from outside our building) to help me view our team as part of the process. Again, none of us are as smart as all of us. Besides, I just like hearing other “qualified” opinions. Top-notch GMs listen and want to hear different angles, especially if it comes from a person with experience or a rare perspective, even if it’s about the team you constructed. That’s where the honesty has to come in.

Teams then use their pro scouting departments and even some media sources to flush out trade targets and options. Gathering intel takes time, and it’s something that teams are doing as I write this. Pro personnel scouts spend entire days watching film, organizing thoughts and ranking players. They do the lion’s share of the homework on these exercises. As a GM, you trust and value their opinions just like you do the college scouts when preparing for the NFL Draft.



I would also go to our own assistant coaches to gather any character background, learning styles and work ethic intel about a potential trade target if a particular coach had been on a staff who worked with that player in the past. I would not want our gathering of information to include making calls outside our building because the exercise can’t be compromised from a confidentiality standpoint. That’s why in some instances, very few people know about potential trade options.

The notion of executing an in-season trade is complicated by the game itself, which requires 11 players moving and thinking in unison at an elite level. The notion of plug-and-play sounds great on talk radio or on paper. But a change of scenery in football requires learning schemes, terminology, systems and structure that vary from team to team. This is even more of a reason teams need to study how players learn best when they come through the drafting process to enter the league. It is possible to acquire a specific player and his skill set and implement them on the fly, but it works best if the coaching staff is adept at communicating and teaching. Every acquired player gets a crash course of a new playbook, and some coaches do it better than others. That’s yet another factor to consider when making a deal — or not.



Assess the fit — in every way

As a GM, you must define or categorize your trade targets and options. Maybe you’re looking for one element that the team really lacks, such as an offensive guard with more anchor to protect the middle of our pocket to improve the vision of your shorter QB. Maybe your scheme has evolved in a way since Week 1 that you need a corner who can play a variety of techniques. If the player you’re targeting is an injury replacement, maybe it’s a one-year rental. Other times you may be looking for a longer-term fix. That determination will affect how much compensation a team will be comfortable giving. But you have to be willing to pay to get what you want, and if you find it, you have to be willing to overpay.

Player contracts matter in these transactions, in terms of both their length and structure. What makes sense on the field has to make sense on paper, namely the cap balance sheet, and this requires a different set of facts and analysis. I would always include salary cap ramifications as part of any thought process or scenario, and my experience of negotiating and understanding the contract side was critical. Having negotiated contracts — which requires evaluation of their skills and a valuation of them for cap purposes — made the practical aspects of formulating trade ideas and proposals easier.



The majority of contract work these days is handled by a capologist, and they should be in on personnel meetings and team-building from Day 1 so that they can share ideas and information with the football people and vice versa. I have never liked to compartmentalize information. I wanted to have us all in the same room to work and communicate together.

Trades are complicated tasks, but they were made easier when the NFL moved the deadline back two weeks a little more than a decade ago. It allowed the volume of trades to increase, and that’s a good thing not only for public interest but for the good of the game. Why? Because it gives decision-makers more time to sort out their own team with schemes, coaches, injuries, schedules, etc. Confining that task to a six-week regular-season window made it hard for teams to improve themselves via trades.


Every NFL team’s GM is asking themselves what they can do to make us better right now, no matter for how long. It keeps you awake at night. You’re trying to send the message to the locker room that you’re doing everything you can to make the team better.


Randy Mueller spent 35 years in the NFL at all levels of football operations, from ballboy to general manager. A former NFL Executive of the Year, he joined The Athletic's NFL staff in 2023 as an expert on player talent evaluation and team roster building. He also co-hosts "The Football GM Podcast" on The Athletic Football Show. Follow Randy on Twitter @RandyMueller_